IS THIS AN INSULT TO THE AFRICAN INTELLECTUAL? (The must read truth about Africa and diasporas; the raw-truth and mind facts about bugling Africa, the Motherland.)

My input: On March 20^th 2011, in this blog, I wrote and posted this article, “When is Africa and African gonna get up from the dark-life!!!!”. I always say, African problems are brought by Africans themselves, just like the Western prosperity is brought about by the Westerners. The notion that Africans won’t change the way they do business and things will somehow change by nature or by the miracle of God, is crazy and insane. Ben Franklin, an American founding father, said that to do same thing over and over with expectation of different results is insanity. In this case for Africans who think that things will somehow change by miracle of God they are projecting insanity. Thus, if Africans don’t like the environment (situations) they are into they would have changed it long time ago and or will need to wake up and do things differently for better good. 

For example, Zimbabwe has changed, although not for good but for worse and what they aspire, blaming the White people for their down-fall. They turned their economic prosperity gained from Farming, manufacturing and mining into the total chaos. It is because that Zimbabwean did not like the economic prosperity and stability they enjoyed from farming, manufacturing and mining that was well managed by White people. Now they are daring to blame others/West for their own brutal acts against humanity and voodoo development policies. Just like many other Africans, soon after their independence, they chose their loving path that they are into up to today and still blaming the West for their poor economy and living conditions.

I may sound like crazy but economic prosperity and societal development are always results of political policies that originate from the law-of-the-land, the Constitution, and reflected to the foreign-policy of the nation. In this case America or Europe for that matter, they are developed and prosperous because their policies and constitutions are set to project their best interests the way they want for their nations to be and exactly as it is right now and years to come. America, Russia, Germany or Europe did not emerge as powers of the world by accident. Likewise, Africa, it is where it is because of African policies. These policies are the reasons for Africa to be in the place that it is right now. African leaders, so far are projecting to send Africa further into the dooms days. This is going to happen if and big “IF” Africans won’t change and set out policies that will take Africa into prosperity, unlike the selfishness and corruptions that is taking place right now. Africa need the big wake-up call that will send clear and resounding messages to the African leaders to make tough and brave choices for African people, or else face the consequences. Then there will be a turn around because without consequences we all, human beings, cannot project our priorities straight. It is the human nature, so to speak.

To start the change Africans have to stop blaming others for their own mistakes and irresponsibilities such as colonialism, poverty and so on. They should remember that Europe was also once colonized by Ottoman Empire and Egypt; and America was the colonies of the Europe, divided among the Europeans just like Africa. Yes, also slaves and religious prisoners were sent or flee to Americas as slaves as well. this is part of humanity and puzzle that is there since before and after Jesus. But I never heard Americans blaming the Great Britain or Europe for that matter, rather taking ownership and great responsibilities of their actions, from the declaration of independence, revolutionary war, civil wars, WWI & II and civil right movement. American and European’s laws of the land created the true check and balance to the point that even if you put a crazy guy in power the country's fabrics will still stand still and stronger. Unlike African countries that a crazy guy like Mugabe, Iddi Amin, Ghadafy, Mubarak, Charles Tailor, Mobutu and many more, their individual actions have taken their entire individual nations into the knees by wars, torture, poverty, unkind and and disgrace of many despicable acts against the Humanity.

What the world don’t understand is why African leaders and their delegations to the west cannot even just copying something so little like constitution from the western countries when they visit, study, and or live there? Don’t they enjoy the prosperity of the West? Yes they do; that’s why they engage in the corruptions, taking their family members to study, invest, shop, live and bank in the west. They have western fantasy, they, are like almost all Africans seen a “White” person as superior to themselves, Africans. No prejudice, I have family members who are white, and I do not dislike White people at all. I just dont think that they are more human than am or Africans as African themselves projects. I see myself equal to them, i cry, i feel pain, i can think and have all qualities as human being. I value myself equal and capable to do things that a white person can and can’t do. Certainly I'm unique in my own ways as they each are in their own ways too.  I’m not inferior or superior to anyone but I value me and my kind as competitive human being who is capable of both bad and good. 

I remember walking into a 5 Star tourist hotel in Africa with my white friend that we met flying from Geneva Switzerland to Tanzania. I was stopped and I was told that I was not dressed appropriately because I had jeans and polo-t-short on. But my white friend had sleepers on with tropical casual outfits (shots and sing-lend) was not questioned. This happened in Africa and I was stopped by a fellow African, watchman, when he saw my credentials he was left mouth opened and refrained by disgrace. I call that self discrimination. With such a low self-esteem, others (could be white, Chinese, Arabs, Indians or even fellow Africans) will control you for anything until you do some soul-searching and dramatically shift from such dogma and taboo into real and rational sense of who you are, what are you standing for, and what are you capable of. To their surprise here in the west, they don’t stop anyone because of appearance, they need money and no culture, tribe, clan or appearance on business, because money talks. 

In order for Africa and African to be treated at high standards they have to start treating themselves and their own to such high standard. Stop degrading yourselves that much. Have priorities in your pride. I hate to tell this story, but I witnessed and experienced it first hand. I dont want anyone to have the feelings i experienced in that Hotel. Like my father used to say, “I can forgive but I will never forget”.

That’s why I’m about to introduce you to the fantastic article written by a fellow from Zambia, an African brother, who is enlightening us all about what is at the stake here. He is telling the bare-naked truth and raw truth on how Africans are and what it takes to overcome the challenges. First we have to admit the problems, develop our own solutions, and then act-upon them. This is the must read article, and it will bring you back into the village you grew up and change your mind about the way you live, think, see and do things from now own. I agree with him 100% and may God bless him for bringing this raw-truth for the public to read.

IS THIS AN INSULT TO THE AFRICAN INTELLECTUAL? Please read on…………..

They call the Third World the lazy man’s purview; the sluggishly slothful and languorous prefecture. In this realm people are sleepy, dreamy, torpid, lethargic, and therefore indigent—totally penniless, needy, destitute, poverty-stricken, disfavored, and impoverished. In this demesne, as they call it, there are hardly any discoveries, inventions, and innovations. Africa is the trailblazer. Some still call it “the dark continent” for the light that flickers under the tunnel is not that of hope, but an approaching train. And because countless keep waiting in the way of the train, millions die and many more remain decapitated by the day.

“It’s amazing how you all sit there and watch yourselves die,” the man next to me said. “Get up and do something about it.”

Brawny, fully bald-headed, with intense, steely eyes, he was as cold as they come. When I first discovered I was going to spend my New Year’s Eve next to him on a non-stop JetBlue flight from Los Angeles to Boston I was angst-ridden. I associate marble-shaven Caucasians with iconoclastic skin-heads, most of who are racist.

“My name is Walter,” he extended his hand as soon as I settled in my seat.

I told him mine with a precautious smile.

“Where are you from?” he asked.

“Zambia.”

“Zambia!” he exclaimed, “Kaunda’s country.”

“Yes,” I said, “Now Sata’s.”

“But of course,” he responded. “You just elected King Cobra as your president.” My face lit up at the mention of Sata’s moniker. Walter smiled, and in those cold eyes I saw an amenable fellow, one of those American highbrows who shuttle between Africa and the U.S. “I spent three years in Zambia in the 1980s,” he continued. “I wined and dined with Luke Mwananshiku, Willa Mungomba, Dr. Siteke Mwale, and many other highly intelligent Zambians.” He lowered his voice. “I was part of the IMF group that came to rip you guys off.” He smirked. “Your government put me in a million dollar mansion overlooking a shanty called Kalingalinga. From my patio I saw it all—the rich and the poor, the ailing, the dead, and the healthy.”

“Are you still with the IMF?” I asked. “I have since moved to yet another group with similar intentions. In the next few months my colleagues and I will be in Lusaka to hypnotize the cobra. I work for the broker that has acquired a chunk of your debt. Your government owes not the World Bank, but us millions of dollars. We’ll be in Lusaka to offer your president a couple of millions and fly back with a check twenty times greater.”

“No, you won’t,” I said. “King Cobra is incorruptible. He is …”

He was laughing. “Says who? Give me an African president, just one, who has not fallen for the carrot and stick.” Quett Masire’s name popped up. “Oh, him, well, we never got to him because he turned down the IMF and the World Bank. It was perhaps the smartest thing for him to do.” At midnight we were airborne. The captain wished us a happy 2012 and urged us to watch the fireworks across Los Angeles.

“Isn’t that beautiful,” Walter said looking down. From my middle seat, I took a glance and nodded admirably. “That’s white man’s country,” he said. “We came here on Mayflower and turned Indian land into a paradise and now the most powerful nation on earth. We discovered the bulb, and built this aircraft to fly us to pleasure resorts like Lake Zambia.” I grinned. “There is no Lake Zambia.”

He curled his lips into a smug smile. “That’s what we call your country. You guys are as stagnant as the water in the lake. We come in with our large boats and fish your minerals and your wildlife and leave morsels—crumbs. That’s your staple food, crumbs. That corn-meal you eat, that’s crumbs, the small Tilapia fish you call Kapenta is crumbs. We the Bwanas (whites) take the cat fish. I am the Bwana and you are the Muntu. I get what I want and you get what you deserve, crumbs. That’s what lazy people get—Zambians, Africans, the entire Third World.”

The smile vanished from my face.

“I see you are getting pissed off,” Walter said and lowered his voice. “You are thinking this Bwana is a racist. That’s how most Zambians respond when I tell them the truth. They go ballistic. Okay. Let’s for a moment put our skin pigmentations, this black and white crap, aside. Tell me, my friend, what is the difference between you and me?”

“There’s no difference.”

“Absolutely none,” he exclaimed. “Scientists in the Human Genome Project have proved that. It took them thirteen years to determine the complete sequence of the three billion DNA subunits. After they were all done it was clear that 99.9% nucleotide bases were exactly the same in you and me. We are the same people. All white, Asian, Latino, and black people on this aircraft are the same.” I gladly nodded.

“And yet I feel superior,” he smiled fatalistically. “Every white person on this plane feels superior to a black person. The white guy who picks up garbage, the homeless white trash on drugs, feels superior to you no matter his status or education. I can pick up a nincompoop from the New York streets, clean him up, and take him to Lusaka and you all be crowding around him chanting muzungu, muzungu and yet he’s a riffraff. Tell me why my angry friend.” For a moment I was wordless.

“Please don’t blame it on slavery like the African Americans do, or colonialism, or some psychological impact or some kind of stigmatization. And don’t give me the brainwash poppycock. Give me a better answer.” I was thinking. He continued. “Excuse what I am about to say. Please do not take offense.” I felt a slap of blood rush to my head and prepared for the worst.

“You my friend flying with me and all your kind are lazy,” he said. “When you rest your head on the pillow you don’t dream big. You and other so-called African intellectuals are damn lazy, each one of you. It is you, and not those poor starving people, who is the reason Africa is in such a deplorable state.” “That’s not a nice thing to say,” I protested.

He was implacable. “Oh yes it is and I will say it again, you are lazy. Poor and uneducated Africans are the most hardworking people on earth. I saw them in the Lusaka markets and on the street selling merchandise. I saw them in villages toiling away. I saw women on Kafue Road crushing stones for sell and I wept. I said to myself where are the Zambian intellectuals? Are the Zambian engineers so imperceptive they cannot invent a simple stone crusher, or a simple water filter to purify well water for those poor villagers? Are you telling me that after thirty-seven years of independence your university school of engineering has not produced a scientist or an engineer who can make simple small machines for mass use? What is the school there for?” I held my breath.

“Do you know where I found your intellectuals? They were in bars quaffing. They were at the Lusaka Golf Club, Lusaka Central Club, Lusaka Playhouse, and Lusaka Flying Club. I saw with my own eyes a bunch of alcoholic graduates. Zambian intellectuals work from eight to five and spend the evening drinking. We don’t. We reserve the evening for brainstorming.”

He looked me in the eye.

“And you flying to Boston and all of you Zambians in the Diaspora are just as lazy and apathetic to your country. You don’t care about your country and yet your very own parents, brothers and sisters are in Mtendere, Chawama, and in villages, all of them living in squalor. Many have died or are dying of neglect by you. They are dying of AIDS because you cannot come up with your own cure. You are here calling yourselves graduates, researchers and scientists and are fast at articulating your credentials once asked—oh, I have a PhD in this and that—PhD my foot!” I was deflated.

“Wake up you all!” he exclaimed, attracting the attention of nearby passengers. “You should be busy lifting ideas, formulae, recipes, and diagrams from American manufacturing factories and sending them to your own factories. All those research findings and dissertation papers you compile should be your country’s treasure. Why do you think the Asians are a force to reckon with? They stole our ideas and turned them into their own. Look at Japan, China, India, just look at them.”He paused. “The Bwana has spoken,” he said and grinned. “As long as you are dependent on my plane, I shall feel superior and you my friend shall remain inferior, how about that? The Chinese, Japanese, Indians, even Latinos are a notch better. You Africans are at the bottom of the totem pole.”

He tempered his voice. “Get over this white skin syndrome and begin to feel confident. Become innovative and make your own stuff for god’s sake.” At 8 a.m. the plane touched down at Boston’s Logan International Airport. Walter reached for my hand. “I know I was too strong, but I don’t give it a damn. I have been to Zambia and have seen too much poverty.” He pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled something. “Here, read this. It was written by a friend.” He had written only the title: “Lords of Poverty.”

Thunderstruck, I had a sinking feeling. I watched Walter walk through the airport doors to a waiting car. He had left a huge dust devil twirling in my mind, stirring up sad memories of home. I could see Zambia’s literati—the cognoscente, intelligentsia, academics, highbrows, and scholars in the places he had mentioned guzzling and talking irrelevancies. I remembered some who have since passed—how they got the highest grades in mathematics and the sciences and attained the highest education on the planet. They had been to Harvard, Oxford, Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), only to leave us with not a single invention or discovery. I knew some by name and drunk with them at the Lusaka Playhouse and Central Sports.

Walter is right. It is true that since independence we have failed to nurture creativity and collective orientations. We as a nation lack a workhorse mentality and behave like 13 million civil servants dependent on a government pay cheque. We believe that development is generated 8-to-5 behind a desk wearing a tie with our degrees hanging on the wall. Such a working environment does not offer the opportunity for fellowship, the excitement of competition, and the spectacle of innovative rituals.

But the intelligentsia is not solely, or even mainly, to blame. The larger failure is due to political circumstances over which they have had little control. The past governments failed to create an environment of possibility that fosters camaraderie, rewards innovative ideas and encourages resilience. KK, Chiluba, Mwanawasa, and Banda embraced orthodox ideas and therefore failed to offer many opportunities for drawing outside the line.

I believe King Cobra’s reset has been cast in the same faculties as those of his predecessors. If today I told him that we can build our own car, he would throw me out. “Naupena? Fuma apa.” (Are you mad? Get out of here) Knowing well that King Cobra will not embody innovation at Walter’s level let’s begin to look for a technologically active-positive leader who can succeed him after a term or two. That way we can make our own stone crushers, water filters, water pumps, razor blades, and harvesters. Let’s dream big and make tractors, cars, and planes, or, like Walter said, forever remain inferior.

A fundamental transformation of our country from what is essentially non-innovative to a strategic superior African country requires a bold risk-taking educated leader with a triumphalist attitude and we have one in YOU. Don’t be highly strung and feel insulted by Walter. Take a moment and think about our country. Our journey from 1964 has been marked by tears. It has been an emotionally overwhelming experience. Each one of us has lost a loved one to poverty, hunger, and disease. The number of graves is catching up with the population. It’s time to change our political culture. It’s time for Zambian intellectuals to cultivate an active-positive progressive movement that will change our lives forever. Don’t be afraid or dispirited, rise to the challenge and salvage the remaining few of your beloved ones.

Field Ruwe is a US-based Zambian media practitioner and author. He is a PhD candidate with a B.A. in Mass Communication and Journalism, and an M.A. in History.

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